Rough Draft of Issue Brief: The Downfall of Private Prisons

Introduction

In 2019, the infamous College Admission Scandal took place with Lori Loughlin at its front. Loughlin was charged and convicted of the crime related to paying her daughters’ way into college. Loughin was sentenced to two months in federal private prison, called Victorville Federal Correctional Institution. There, Loughlin participated in “….recreational activities include pilates, spin class, yoga, personal training, and landscape painting”. 1 Loughlin’s experience is an outlier, as most private prisons do not allow inmates this much recreational time. 2 On the other hand, it does allow us to see how impractical private institutions can appear. Private prisons are unlike federal public institutions in their structure, operation, and enforcement of the rules within themselves. These types of prisons are treated like factories- inmates are forced to work for the prison’s benefit or profit. Since these prisons are for-profit, they are more likely to have larger resources.3 There are a host of behavior infractions that occur within its walls. However, they do not prove any better than a public institution. For-profit prisons should be formally abolished. They do not lower recidivism rates nor do they offer a harsher punishment than a public institution.4

Description of Code

The model private prison industry formally developed in the United States in the 1980s- driven by the Tough on Crime era and an “Ascendant market-oriented conservatism.” 5 Imprisonment was the largest form of punishment, by enlarging its stature, the private stock began to rise compared to public sectors. Private entities were not only constructing the buildings itself, but would run it as well. This allowed the government to add to its image of being “Tough on Crime” as the numbers of arrests were declining with the continued use of harsh punishments. Additionally, private prisons were implemented as a way to reduce costs to American taxpayers and the federal and state governments who were funding public institutions.7 In today’s contemporary society, it looks slightly different than they were in the 1980s.

Private prisons are enabled by penal code 18 U.S. Code § 4122.8 This code enables federal prisons to “… determine in what manner and to what extent industrial operations shall be carried on in Federal penal and correctional institutions for the production of commodities for consumption in such institutions or for sale to the departments or agencies to the United States, but not for sale to the public in competition with private enterprise.9 This essentially means that on a federal level, each prison system is allowed to decide if it should be privatized, and become for-profit. Private prisons have contracts with the government, which is the “basis for payment to the corporation.”10 Essentially, the government gives money to corporations to run these institutions. However, there are many restrictions. Private prisons cannot obtain a large portion of the market among federal departments, agencies, and institutions for any specific product. So, private prisons are run similar to a business- however, the employees in this analogy, are forced to work and prohibited from quitting until their sentence is terminated. In the United States, about twenty-seven states and the federal government utilize for profit-prisons. 11. Of the 6,295 facilities across the country, about 503 facilities are privatized- or about 8% 12 It is noteworthy to outline that inmates are not forced to work, rather not given any other options but to work for the prison. For example, Willhen Barrientos, an inmate for CoreCivic (one of the most famous for-profit prison companies) was forced to work for basic necessities like soap and toilet paper, which would not be supplied to inmates for free.13

What Private Prisons Are Like

Private prisons are estimated to make $374 million annually.14 Since these are for-profit, supervisors at the top tend to pay their employees less. In 2019, private correctional officers were making less than their correctional officer peers in local jails, state, and federal prisons.15 Private correctional officers were making about $6,800 less than their peers at the local jail, about $7,000, and $14,780 less than federal correctional officers.16 Private prisons also have more annual infractions than their public sector counterparts.17 For example, there were 427 instances of confiscated cell phones compared to 50 per 10,000 federal inmates in 2014.18 Employees have a high turnover rate, about 43% and about 15% in public institutions.19 There are fewer staff members in private facilities, but each has more inmates to care for.20 Each staff member has about 6.7 inmates per correctional officer and 3.7 inmates per staff member. 21 The private sector reported that it paid inmates a wage of $1.09 to $2.75 per day for non-industry labor, while the public sector paid its inmates $0.99 to $3.13 a day. 22

Private prisons consist of primarily inmates of color, about 40% are African American.23 These inmates on average are serving shorter sentences, and are housed in minimum-security custody levels.24 Those who have been imprisoned in private prisons have a large correlation with being associated with organizations like the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.25 Private prisons can also decline inmates if they see fit. Private prisons also run many immigration detention facilities under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which are often not included in the Bureau of Justice Statistics reports.26

Public institutions: What’s The Difference?

The main difference between private and public prisons is who owns the prison. Public institutions are solely owned by the government – whether that is the state government or the federal government. TRANSITION SENTENCE.

What are the positives of private prisons?

Private prisons are for prospective prisons to be financed, located, and constructed quicker and cheaper than in the public sector.27 Additionally, since private firms are not tied to government rules and the policies/biases that come with it, the process is much quicker due to the lack of legislation and public processes it must go through. Additionally, representatives of private sector-firms state that they can save taxpayers money by “providing correctional services traditionally supplied by the government at less cost.” 28 Specifically, lowering the cost of labor costs by decreasing the number of staff, wages, or fringe benefits. Additionally, since private entities are separate, they can get away with lowering “food, supplies, and equipment inventors, and negotiate better prices for these goods” since they are not tied to anyone.29. However, there are many downsides to private prisons. The ultimate goal of prison is to lower the recidivism rates (or the rate at which offenders are incarcerated after being released initially). A study found that those in private facilities had similar recidivism rates to those in public institutions. This same study found that there is a correlation between harsher prison conditions and imperfect behavior in private prisons. Imperfect behavior was defined as “sexual assault and abuse, inmates denied access to medical care, smuggled weapons, drugs and so much marijuana that guards and visitors said they’d leave with their clothes smelling like smoke” 30 Private prisons aren’t enforcing the rules or laws inside their walls any better than the public sector is. Also, new opportunities for corruption are present. Employees are poorly paid, and inadequately trained, among other factors that account for private prisons not being outwardly better than the public sector. 31

Conclusion: So, what do we do?

All of this information leaves American citizens with one remaining question – what should we do about this ongoing issue? We should ban private prisons. We are already heading in that direction. Several advocates and political figures have been pushing for the removal of private prisons, and in 2021 finally gained a win. In early 2021, President Joe Biden signed an executive order which discontinued the Department of Justice’s contracts with for-profit institutions.32 In practicality, this means that there will be a decrease in these types of institutions on a federal level. States are allowed to keep these types of facilities if they so please. States should follow this trend of abolishing private prisons. They are proven to not lower recidivism rates, infringe on our capitalistic market, and have more contraband than public prisons. CONCLUSION SENTENCE.

Works cited

2 thoughts on “Rough Draft of Issue Brief: The Downfall of Private Prisons”

Ryan Klein says:

March 29, 2022 at 2:52 pm

Great job working ahead! As far as the introduction, you used a (relatively) current event to begin the issue brief on private vs. public prisons. Your stance is very clear, concise, and coherent. If there was anything I would revise, I’d consider adding in some kind of information about public prisons in the introduction. Providing the contrast between Public and Private Institutions will make your thesis that much stronger. All in all, I’m excited to see where you take this. It seems very interesting.
Ryan Klein says:

March 31, 2022 at 3:11 pm

1. The structure of the paper matches the overall thesis that you’d laid out in the introduction. Personally, I like the way you kept the order.
2. Since you have a lot of the broad points, I’d say that the topic sentences don’t match the thesis. However, as you write the topic sentences, I’m sure it’ll match up.
3. N/A
4. I’d do an infographic on the demographics of prisoners.

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Amaya Lopez

Swapping out sunny days, for snowy nights

Rough Draft of Issue Brief: The Downfall of Private Prisons

2 thoughts on “Rough Draft of Issue Brief: The Downfall of Private Prisons”

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